State Sen. Dave Syverson (R-Rockford) released the following statement after Senate Democrats passed a partisan budget bill and historic tax hike:

“It’s extremely disappointing that Democrats have decided to walk away from budget negotiations and pass a partisan budget with no reforms, along with a large tax increase that is retroactive to January 1st and includes new sales taxes. Their budget eliminates the cuts that were agreed to in bipartisan negotiations, and can only remotely be called ‘balanced’ because it completely ignores existing bills. The people of Illinois will be left with government as usual. We stand to continue negotiations that will improve our jobs climate and give the kind of property tax relief that struggling homeowners need.”